The CCTA, the UK Government Centre for Information Systems, has published a report on Smart Cards. The agency believes that Smart Cards are an opportunity for the public sector to improve delivery of services to the public, while reducing costs. So unemployment and social security benefits might be available on a card, while driving licences and health records, could be kept on cards with either a magnetic stripe or chip. But the agency is not speculating on whether or not the UK government is about to introduce a national identity card based on a Smart Card. A consultative paper on the issue is exected this month. For the CCTA the main concern is that cards that are being developed by the private and public sector are all compatible: it does not want a situation where organisations would have to have a number of machines to read different incompatible cards. It expects the banks to take the lead in standardisation as one of the key applications is for storing money. The CCTA’s publication, Smart Cards, Opportunities For Public Sector Applications, details the potential uses of the cards, how they work, how to secure them and public issues surrounding their introduction.
